Ban seal hunters from using clubs: Canada premiers

OTTAWA (Reuters) - High-profile protests against Canada's
annual seal hunt would be less effective if hunters were banned
from clubbing the animals to death, say two leading Canadian
provincial politicians.

Ottawa will allow hunters to kill 275,000 young seals on
ice floes off the eastern coast this year.

Although most animals are shot, some are killed by blows
from large spiked hakapik clubs. Animal rights groups often use
graphic pictures of the clubbing as part of their campaign to
ban the hunt altogether.

Danny Williams, premier of the Atlantic province of
Newfoundland and Labrador, called for the hakapik to be banned.
He said this might persuade the European Union to ignore
pressure to ban the import of seal products.

Hunters and rights activists both said on Wednesday that
they were opposed to the idea.

Williams acted after a delegation from Newfoundland and the
Arctic territory of Nunavut -- where seals are also hunted --
visited several EU countries.

"Within each (European) country the use of the hakapik was
a dominant issue and continues to be viewed in an extremely
negative manner," he said in a statement issued jointly with
Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik.

"(We were) told repeatedly that a ban of this tool may
prove to dispel some of the negative opinions regarding the
Canadian seal harvest ... This is an opportunity to disarm
(decision makers) of something that is used negatively against
our sealers."
Continued...